Heaven's Regulations {Rewrite}

Chapter 38 ~ You Sure Took a While

I won't say much. Here goes!

******************

"SASORI!"

It was not one second later that Rin felt two familiar chakra signatures approach.

However, it was not the familiar she wanted.

"No way..." Three ex-teammates chorused their disbelief in unison.

"R-Rin...?" Kakashi whispered. He was clad in ANBU uniform.

The medic paid him no heed. She focused all of her attention on the redhead.

"Come on, come on... Get up, you..." She pulsed more and more chakra into his body.

"He's dead, imposter." Kakashi's icy voice cut through her hopes. "And you screwed up big time, because Rin's dead too."

Slowly, the kunoichi raised her eyes to meet one charcoal eye and one flaming with a three-tomoe Sharingan.

Her eyes narrowed and her vision blurred as she stood up.

"You two..."

In a second, she was bound in ropes.

"Show us your real form," Minato said, approaching the girl.

"Kakashi has a Sharingan, does he not?" she asked, eyes shadowed. "Can't he see through the Genjutsu - if it were one?"

"Kakashi?" the Yondaime Hokage prompted.

"I-I don't think it's a Genjutsu."

"See there? That's your answer," Rin whispered, head down.

"But Rin's dead. I saw it with my own eyes," her old teammate said. Beneath the dog mask, the slightest quiver could be heard in his voice.

The medic raised defiant, tear-filled eyes.

"Why can't you just belie-"

She coughed blood. Crimson was spreading on her cloak, right across her chest.

"You...!"

"I won't let anyone replicate Rin. You were a fool to try."

But something had blocked the katana aimed at her. The lethal blow was reduced to a deep cut into her chest.

Before Rin stood a man adorned in white, wings spread.

"Yo." Hashirama grinned down at the medic, steadying the girl.

"Glorious decorations, buddy..." she coughed out, looking pointedly at his wings. The Shodai Hokage did a hair flip.

"Thank Ryunosuke-sama. You can't send anything less than an angel to protect an angel." His grin became a pout. "And you can't die just yet, unfortunately."

Rin's eye twitched.

"Th-Thank you."

Her best friend sighed.

"Live on, kiddo. Remember that we're thinking about you up there," he whispered.

"Aww, you guys are sweet."

Hashirama hugged Rin.

"Go do some permanent damage to Madara for me. His brain's permanently damaged already, so don't worry about it. And..." The man smiled. "Stay safe."

With that, Rin's best friend wisped away in a flurry of feathers.

"Copying me, are you...?"

The kunoichi toppled over, exhausted to the point of paralyzation.